Over the last several weeks, the forums have endured a lot of drama and accusations around the authenticity of "DK_Knight2's ROM releases and development work." Specifically, several individuals outside the forums have expressed dissatisfaction that DK has not been forthcoming in naming the true sources of his development work and what, if any, role he has actually played in each of his releases.
His accusers have created multiple accounts in the forums with the sole purpose of trying to discredit DK_Knight2 and make a mockery of the forums. Unfortunately, none of them ever contacted me directly with their grievances. Instead, this group used these accounts to troll the forums, and created chaos on a daily basis. In doing so, these individuals have only demonstrated a lack of maturity by way of their actions both inside and outside the forums.
I have nothing kind to say to these individuals and everything I state below was not done on behalf of them, their PayPal accounts, nor their unwillingness to help others who are genuinely interested in building upon their development -- one of the fundamental components of Android development.
That said, their actions, whether I agree with them or not, was the primary motivator for us to take a deeper look at DK_Knight2's ROM releases.
Collectively, the Moderators, AC Developers, and I have spent ~80 hours of our time substantiating their claims, moderating trolls, and working with DK to become compliant with the AC Developer/GNU Public Licensing Rules (AKA GPL)
Just over 2 weeks ago, we discovered that DK had been posting ROM's that were entirely based on the work of others, and repacking them as if he had done all of it on his own. At the same time, he was also asking that members donate to him via PayPal. Standard protocol is to immediately ban any member who does such a thing.
However, DK attempted to make things right when he posted this public apology.
At the time, we were impressed that he'd chosen to make such a humble apology. DK also demonstrated a genuine interest in being given a second opportunity to release his own development work, and be fully compliant with our developer rules.
We decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to right a wrong. Unfortunately, he has failed to do so, and has failed to demonstrate even the most basic skills required to post ROM’s that we feel are safe for flashing.
3 days ago, I sent DK_Knight2 the following PM:
Not only has DK not replied to me directly, he still has not fully complied with my requests. While he did open a Github account, he has yet to post anything in his public repository since he created the account on August 23rd. In comparison, PhantomPhreak53, is an example of someone who is posting all changes to Github.
All that said, we have taken things a step further to ensure that we've done due diligence on our end in order to make an informed decision that’s in the best interest of the community – including developers and users – while protecting the forums credibility within the development community.
Findings:
At its core, Dark_Knight2's "port" is in fact a port of euroskank's NS4G ROM using sbrissen's kernel. However there are some key differences, which DK failed to note (yet again).
DK has stated that the Camera Fix, Settings.apk, Contacts.apk and Vpn(Dialogs).apk are taken from PhantomPhreak's ROM. This is factual but incomplete.
In addition to the apps mentioned above PhantomPhreaks's Phone.apk & framework-res.apk were included as well.
After decompiling each of the APK's above, and examining the AndroidManifest.xml - file in each of the APK's listed above – we found the following string: eng.michael.20120822.112021.
This string is an exact match of the source build that PhantomPhreak released on XDA and has since re-posted here at Android Central.
While it is not directly possible to prove that the kernel included with Dark_Knight2's ROM is a stock sbrissen kernel, it is highly likely based on Dark_Knight2's own previous admission that it has been modified from the original source. If it has, he is not only breaking the forums developer rules, but he is also in violation of GPL by not publishing his modified sources.
In an effort to better understand his technical aptitude, one of our Moderators posed a series of questions to DK. His answers demonstrated a lack of knowledge that concerned us enough to take a closer look at his releases.
This post is also 100% in violation of forum rules. Particularly this demand with a link to the download:
Conclusion:
We were unable to find any changes to DK’s ROM that would differentiate or provide any significant value to end-users. Instead, it appears as if he’s simply tinkering with things with the hope that some positive result will come from it – without actually knowing what the end result will be. This could have less than desirable results to those who choose to flash his ROM’s.
Dark_Knight2 is barred from any further development releases until he can prove that his releases are as close to 100% original work as is possible. He must fully comply with all Developer Rules and GPL. He must populate his Github repository as requested. All “development work” must be submitted to AC staff for review. My guess is that none of this is going to happen. Feel free to download and use his ROM’s, but just know that most of the credit for these ROM’s should be given to those listed in his apology post, and all other changes are at your own risk.
If you're not technically inclined, and none of this made any sense to you, perhaps the fundamentals that I posted here this past June will help. I tried to put it in layman's terms.
You can't buy a cake from a European bakery, sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar on top, package it up in your own box, present it as if you've done something of significance, and stamp the box with a link to your PayPal account. In the world of Open Source, you need to include the recipe, tell people exactly what you've done, state clearly where you acquired the cake, who baked it, and exactly how you've improved on it. In the world of Open Source the bakery got the cake from Google. They tweaked it and made it better. In the end, the real source is Google, and Google's expectation is that the community is unified in their goal of improving on what they've given to the community in the interest of making it better. Unfortunately, this is not the case a lot of the time.
Cory
His accusers have created multiple accounts in the forums with the sole purpose of trying to discredit DK_Knight2 and make a mockery of the forums. Unfortunately, none of them ever contacted me directly with their grievances. Instead, this group used these accounts to troll the forums, and created chaos on a daily basis. In doing so, these individuals have only demonstrated a lack of maturity by way of their actions both inside and outside the forums.
I have nothing kind to say to these individuals and everything I state below was not done on behalf of them, their PayPal accounts, nor their unwillingness to help others who are genuinely interested in building upon their development -- one of the fundamental components of Android development.
That said, their actions, whether I agree with them or not, was the primary motivator for us to take a deeper look at DK_Knight2's ROM releases.
Collectively, the Moderators, AC Developers, and I have spent ~80 hours of our time substantiating their claims, moderating trolls, and working with DK to become compliant with the AC Developer/GNU Public Licensing Rules (AKA GPL)
Just over 2 weeks ago, we discovered that DK had been posting ROM's that were entirely based on the work of others, and repacking them as if he had done all of it on his own. At the same time, he was also asking that members donate to him via PayPal. Standard protocol is to immediately ban any member who does such a thing.
However, DK attempted to make things right when he posted this public apology.
At the time, we were impressed that he'd chosen to make such a humble apology. DK also demonstrated a genuine interest in being given a second opportunity to release his own development work, and be fully compliant with our developer rules.
We decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to right a wrong. Unfortunately, he has failed to do so, and has failed to demonstrate even the most basic skills required to post ROM’s that we feel are safe for flashing.
3 days ago, I sent DK_Knight2 the following PM:
Not only has DK not replied to me directly, he still has not fully complied with my requests. While he did open a Github account, he has yet to post anything in his public repository since he created the account on August 23rd. In comparison, PhantomPhreak53, is an example of someone who is posting all changes to Github.
All that said, we have taken things a step further to ensure that we've done due diligence on our end in order to make an informed decision that’s in the best interest of the community – including developers and users – while protecting the forums credibility within the development community.
Findings:
At its core, Dark_Knight2's "port" is in fact a port of euroskank's NS4G ROM using sbrissen's kernel. However there are some key differences, which DK failed to note (yet again).
DK has stated that the Camera Fix, Settings.apk, Contacts.apk and Vpn(Dialogs).apk are taken from PhantomPhreak's ROM. This is factual but incomplete.
In addition to the apps mentioned above PhantomPhreaks's Phone.apk & framework-res.apk were included as well.
After decompiling each of the APK's above, and examining the AndroidManifest.xml - file in each of the APK's listed above – we found the following string: eng.michael.20120822.112021.
This string is an exact match of the source build that PhantomPhreak released on XDA and has since re-posted here at Android Central.
While it is not directly possible to prove that the kernel included with Dark_Knight2's ROM is a stock sbrissen kernel, it is highly likely based on Dark_Knight2's own previous admission that it has been modified from the original source. If it has, he is not only breaking the forums developer rules, but he is also in violation of GPL by not publishing his modified sources.
In an effort to better understand his technical aptitude, one of our Moderators posed a series of questions to DK. His answers demonstrated a lack of knowledge that concerned us enough to take a closer look at his releases.
This post is also 100% in violation of forum rules. Particularly this demand with a link to the download:
Conclusion:
We were unable to find any changes to DK’s ROM that would differentiate or provide any significant value to end-users. Instead, it appears as if he’s simply tinkering with things with the hope that some positive result will come from it – without actually knowing what the end result will be. This could have less than desirable results to those who choose to flash his ROM’s.
Dark_Knight2 is barred from any further development releases until he can prove that his releases are as close to 100% original work as is possible. He must fully comply with all Developer Rules and GPL. He must populate his Github repository as requested. All “development work” must be submitted to AC staff for review. My guess is that none of this is going to happen. Feel free to download and use his ROM’s, but just know that most of the credit for these ROM’s should be given to those listed in his apology post, and all other changes are at your own risk.
If you're not technically inclined, and none of this made any sense to you, perhaps the fundamentals that I posted here this past June will help. I tried to put it in layman's terms.
You can't buy a cake from a European bakery, sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar on top, package it up in your own box, present it as if you've done something of significance, and stamp the box with a link to your PayPal account. In the world of Open Source, you need to include the recipe, tell people exactly what you've done, state clearly where you acquired the cake, who baked it, and exactly how you've improved on it. In the world of Open Source the bakery got the cake from Google. They tweaked it and made it better. In the end, the real source is Google, and Google's expectation is that the community is unified in their goal of improving on what they've given to the community in the interest of making it better. Unfortunately, this is not the case a lot of the time.
Cory
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